While Kurama's Away
by Soul's Eclipse
Summary: ...the boys will play. Or so everyone thinks. Pity the villagers. AU
1. Mischief Afoot

While Kurama's Away… … the boys will play. Or so everyone thinks. Pity the villagers.

A/N: You know this, and are horrified by this. I know this and am horrified by it. But hey, the creator of YYH is making me do it or else he'll send me to the other side of the universe. On second thought, I could write all I want and will never get beaten, fried, eaten, roasted, stuffed with an apple, put in a pie….

Another thing, this fic is AU and don't be surprised to see something modern in a supposedly aristocratic kingdom!

**Chapter 1**

Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei tried failingly to hide their sniggers. Kurama sent them an exasperated glance while trying to pry the woman off his leg. "Madam, I promise you," he said, trying to hide his irritation, "Your son will be fine. He only was nervous… that's why he vomited quite violently in front of the entire kingdom when I approached him. I will not hold him to blame." The woman looked hopeful.

"Are you sure?" Kurama nodded curtly.

"Now please, madam, release my leg." The village woman suddenly realized her position and let go immediately, causing Kurama to fall over from the sudden withdrawal.

"I'm so SORRY, sir! I'M SO SORRY!!" she wailed as the guards tried to politely escort her to the exit. Unfortunately, she was incredibly clingy, so they had spend some extra minutes prying the hysterical woman's arms and legs off the unlucky guard who happened to be nearby. Then they booted her out of the castle.

Kurama, as soon as the woman left his line of sight, flopped back down onto his throne. The others came up, grinning.

"That was fun. Who's the next hysterical broad?" Kurama eyed him evilly.

"That's not funny." Yusuke shrugged. Hiei smirked. Kuwabara grinned enviously.

"You're so lucky, man! You got to watch the kingdom while Yoko and your parents are away!" Kurama's fingers flew up to his face, massaging his temples.

"And you three are supposed to be my advisors. Where's all the advice?" Yusuke grinned.

"We DID give you advice. Only you didn't listen to it, like the time that the court jester-"

"My hair was only a LITTLE singed. No needs to make him go swimming with the poisonous eels naked and in front of entire kingdom." Kuwabara laughed.

"Man, that was so freaking funny!" Hiei smirked.

"We DID pull him out before he got bitten." Kurama frowned.

"It wasn't necessary to pull him out AFTER the screams." Yusuke grinned.

"So what? That'll teach the damn drunk to not drink before he performs a flaming breath act in front of royalty." Kurama sighed. This ruling business was so hard. He preferred spending time in his garden but then his parents and older brother Yoko suddenly dropped by and said, "We're leaving! You rule in our place, so TA TA!"

And then Kurama found himself surrounded by half the kingdom, begging for favors.

He also found himself confronting Yoko's fan club.

This was always a source of contention between Yoko and him. Since they were both princes, they competed for most attention. Fans of Yoko always sang of his angelic looks and mysteriousness while fans of Kurama praised his long locks, the intense green eyes, and princely manner. They claimed he never treated a woman wrong, old or young, pretty or ugly. Yoko's fans countered with the fact that if Kurama was so nice, he'll never choose a wife among his fans because he can't seem to turn down women. Kurama's fans retorted back that due to Yoko's so-called mysteriousness, the wife'll never know if the husband's cheating on him. It was a constant battlefield.

So naturally, Kurama was NOT HAPPY in the mist of tears, sobs, and hankies as the fans mourned the sudden loss of their beloved prince Yoko. Jeez, you think he's dead or something by the way they're going on about it. But Kurama, as a gentleman, could not throw these women out of his castle like his inner Kurama was yelling at him to.

Now he was stuck with the most boring job in the world. He hated it, wanted to get away from it.

"If I was ruler, I'd eat all the food in the kingdom." Kurama, startled, glanced at Kuwabara. Yusuke looked thoughtful, too.

"Yeah, and if I was ruler, I'd make a rule that says that all the strong warriors of the kingdom has to fight me." Hiei smirked.

"I have a way more important rule to make if I was ruler." Kurama was curious.

"Oh? What?" Hiei looked smug.

"All the sweet snow I can eat!" An idea was starting to form in Kurama's mind. Even though it was considered ONE OF THE MANY, MANY THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER DO, Kurama thought about it anyway. He weighed one option against the other. An image of a beautiful bikini-clad woman rubbing lotion of his skin was squashed by the image of mayhem and murder. The women and the villagers of a war-torn kingdom did battle. The warriors in bikinis won.

"Well… what if you could become a ruler? I mean, just for a short while." They looked interested.

"Why would you ask that?" Hiei asked suspiciously. Kurama smiled harmlessly.

"I'm just tired of all this prince business. I mean, I've been doing this since I was born. The money, the power, no longer tempts me, the adoration of my fans…" he trailed off at the look of greediness on their faces.

"And how long would our reign be?" Hiei was already calculating how many gallons of sweet snow could he have transported from the north. Kurama shrugged.

"How about… a week or so? We'll see at the end of our deal." Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara stuck out their hands.

"Deal." Kurama shook each of their hands with a self-satisfied smile. _Sunny beaches, here I come._

As they waved Kurama goodbye from the back entrance, his hair dyed black and hidden in his cap, a sack hanging from his back while modest clothes wrapped their master in their clever disguise, Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara looked at each other, pure mischief on their faces.

"Who wants to make the first rule?"

TBC….

R&R please!!!


	2. Monday

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews. Ironic much that this is another attempt at an YYH fic and surprisingly, it's working!

**Drakumaru: **'Ominous?' How is it ominous? Pray tell me…

**Samuraiduck27:** Thanks so much! I like your name!

**Kari the Shadow Goddess:** Great to hear from you again! Thanks and I will try to review a little faster than my last fic.

By the way, PLEASE update 'Kurama's Dog'! I love it!

**SilverRainbow223**: I don't know… maybe… Anyways, you'll get a surprise here! I also saw your reviews on a story I was reading at the time, though I can't quite remember which story it was at the time…?

Okay! If any of you guys want the other guys in this fic, you gotta help me out here. I can't simply remember them all. When you guys review this chappie, if you want your fave character (minus the SD's) in it, simply tell me. If he/she is a character not usually seen in the anime normally, you gotta tell me exactly who he/she is. Okay? Alrighty!

**Chapter 2: Monday**

Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei had split up the week accordingly: Yusuke rules Monday and Tuesday, Hiei Wednesday and Thursday, and Kuwabara Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, Yusuke and Hiei couldn't decide on who was going to get the last day, never mind Kuwabara, so they divided it equally. Yusuke gets the morning and half the afternoon while Hiei gets the other half and the night. Kuwabara, so extremely happy with his ruling days, did not even object.

Yusuke was lounging happily on the throne, smirking at his new power over people when the stewardess (?) Botan stormed through the large doors. "Where is His Highness?" she demanded.

"I am His Highness," smirked Yusuke. He was delighted with Botan's infuriated expression.

Botan walked straight up to Yusuke while the guards around him looked at her in confusion. "Listen up! YOU are not HIS HIGHNESS, or anyone of the ROYAL family. YOU are one of his ADVISORS who is currently sitting his lazy butt off on the royal throne!" She thought she had him there. Her expectancy at his immediate apologies started to irritate Yusuke.

"Look, Botan," he said through gritted teeth, "I am now ruler so just BUG OFF."

"I will not 'bug off', so to speak," Botan tossed back, "You are NOT ruler, as you are not part of the royal family. SO you are not supposed to be ruler! I refused to believe that His Highness is letting you loose this way. I will speak to him of your rude behavior!"

"WELL TAKE A RAIN CHECK," Yusuke thundered, "CAUSE KURAMA AIN'T HERE!"

"WHADDYA MEAN, HE'S NOT HERE?" bellowed Botan.

"JUST WHAT I SAID!"

"What?" she whispered in shock. "His Highness isn't here! Where the heck is he!"

She started waving her hands and running around frantically. "Guards! Guards!"

Cursing, Yusuke jumped off his throne and clapped his hand on Botan's mouth. "Shut UP! Kurama wanted to go, okay!"

Botan stood still, slowly absorbing what he said. "Uua? (What?)"

Satisfied that she was finally quiet, he removed his hand from her mouth and stalked back to his throne.

Botan just stood there, staring at him before asking. " …And why did he want to leave?"

Yusuke shrugged. "Dunno. It was yesterday, and Hiei, Kuwabara, and me were talking about what we do if we ruled like Kurama did. Then he just asked us if we really wanted to. Heck, yeah we did. So poof! Here we are, and Kurama's long gone. He'll come back in a week."

Botan's legs could not hold her up any longer. She collapsed on the ground in a sitting position, staring at Yusuke. "Oh. My. God. We're all doomed."

"You're not doomed," replied Yusuke jovially, "I'm still here, and so is Hiei and Kuwabara. It ain't **that** bad. Well, maybe things'll go bad when Kuwabara's on the throne, but all in all, it ain't that bad."

"We're all doomed…" Botan was beyond shock now. "We're all doomed!"

Ignoring Botan's yelling, Yusuke got down to business. "Now, as my first act as ruler, I demand a festival followed by a martial arts tournament with the strongest men from all parts of the kingdom as the contestants tomorrow night. The feast has **got** to have pork, ham, bacon, rice balls-"

"-And sweet snow. Lots of it." Hiei has finally shown up.

"Where's Kuwabara?" asked Yusuke. Hiei gave a smirk.

"He's up in his room, trying to write down all of his possible acts as ruler. Stupid idiot." Hiei glanced at the still yelling Botan. "I take it that she's figured out what happened."

"Did she ever."

"Since there is tournament tomorrow night, I shall enter."

"Well," Yusuke grinned, "guess I'll see you in the ring." Hiei glanced at him in question.

"I'll be fighting the winner." Comprehension dawned on his face, and Hiei gave a short laugh. "Just like you to find the strongest fighter you can find and try to fight him. Hope you're prepared."

"Oh I will be." Hiei and Yusuke locked challenging gazes at each other. They would've stayed this way until one broke it, but Botan suddenly ran right up to Yusuke.

"Why, why, WHY! Why did he pick YOU THREE to be his SUBSTITUTES?" she wailed, pounding her fists on his chest. Yusuke tried to ward off her blows, trying not to hurt her but was finding it a bit hard to do.

"Shut up." The large double doors being kicked open followed the quietly commanding voice. The morning light was blinding as the doors were opened fully. Yusuke and Botan raised their arms against the light while Hiei merely narrowed his eyes a bit.

When his eyes finally got used to the light, Yusuke lowered his arms to glance at the newcomer. And he stared.

For the newcomer was none other than…you guessed it…Genkai!

"Old hag, what are you doing here?" demanded Yusuke. "Kurama ain't here."

"Ah… His Highness's training session with his physical trainer Genkai was today," said Botan, as if she had drawn it from her memory, "That was why I was looking for His Highness. He was late."

"That's right. You shouldn't keep a woman waiting. C'mon, let's go." She turned around and started to walk off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Didn't you hear me? Kurama ain't here." Yusuke was confused.

Genkai stopped. "I heard. I am the physical trainer and my job is to train His Highness. And since you're His Highness, lucky you get to have me training you for the afternoon."

"What? Hey!" The guards grabbed Yusuke's arms and tried to lead him out of the throne room, but Yusuke quickly got loose and punched the guards away. But he didn't expect a blow to his head. The last thing he saw was Genkai's stern face before darkness swept over him.

"Pick him up and follow me." Genkai walked out as if she didn't just knock the boy unconscious. The guards rubbed their aching heads, shrugged, picked Yusuke up, and followed Genkai out, leaving behind a startled Botan and an amused Hiei.

Kurama resisted the urge to scratch his head in confusion. He had been wandering around the forest for a while, lost. He had asked directions from a peddler an hour ago, but the peddler had looked at him suspiciously before mouthing off a bunch of confusing directions to the next village. Directions that Kurama apparently couldn't follow unless he had perfect memory.

He sighed. This was going to be long, long week.

Woot! Botan and Genkai in this fic for sure! Remember: if you want your fave YYH character in this fic, tell me! Review please!


End file.
